Why were you in Stebbins?!

Last weekend we went to Stebbins, which is another village in our school district. We had Teacher in-service there on our School Improvement Grant. We will have 3 or 4 in-services over the course of the year the first of which was in Savoonga which is on St. Lawrence Island with us! Stebbins in south in the Norton Sound, close to Unalakleet where we had new teacher in-service. And the reason why we had to go to St. Michael's was because the plane we had to take to leave was too big for the runway in Stebbins. Shishmaref is the fourth school in our Grant however we will not travel there anytime soon. Oh and the reason we had cots was because it was painful sleeping on leaky air mattresses, so our school district up graded to cots!! I hope this helps understand a few of the why questions from the last blog!!

For those of you who haven't seem on Facebook, Ty and I will be coming home for Christmas!! My mom already said the more the merry at their house :o)  

Stebbins Part 2

 My Birthday was made great by my wonderful Husband and my amazing new friends. I had a great time in Stebbins! Thank you also to my great friends in Stebbins and Savoonga, Hallie, especially who made me a very tasty Birthday cake! Thank you so MUCH!!

Ty and I on the beach in Stebbins on my birthday :)

Trying to be romantic...

This is a great pic taken by the amazing Lacy!!

Ty found Sea Glass, it is glass that gets really smooth in the ocean.

Yummy! haha

A white feather

Look what we found, it was meant to be!

I LOVE this picture <3

Hanging out looking at the water with some of our favorite people!

Loving the timer on my camera!

Stebbins Ambulance...

Finally seeing the colors of fall

Tara's baby, I just LOVE his face in this picture!!!

All loaded up to head to St. Michael's to catch the plane!

Let's go!!

Getting a little taste of Fall.

Finally our plane came to get us right outside of St. Michael's

Stebbins Part 1

Welcome to Stebbins where this is called a tree!

It was so beautiful there we took a walk on their wonderful beach!

It was a perfect fall day!

This is one of our staff member Steven chillin' on his cot!

My lovely husband

Getting ready for our wonderful walk!

The tent Derek and Lacy made in our room in Stebbins!

Under the LOVE tent

Stebbins Principal checking out our tent!! 

Birthday Week Continued!

 Right before we left on Thursday Ty ran to the post office to check the mail. To my delight be came back with two packages! This first from Ty's parents and the second from my good friend Myo and her daughter Kjisa!! They were both a great surprise and a since of home before a long weekend! Thank you so very much!!

When Ty and I first started dating Ty's mom got me hooked on cow tails (candy)!

!

I love this nice and soft blanket Ty's mom made for me!

LOL Ty commented that is was a little for me so I thought maybe she was hinting at something!?  No, we are NOT expecting!

 

This box is from Ellsworth, WI were I did my student teaching and Summer School but the best part of the job was working at PKC with Myo :)

She wrapped the goodies with County Market news paper and the prices made me sad!

But to my delight I LOVED the what was inside!! Thank you Thank you Thank you!!!

Sunrise 9:04am - Sunset 9:38pm (Spet. 19th)

This is a picture from my classroom window about two weeks ago at 7:30ish in the morning. If you are wondering how the town gets power there is your answer!

The sun was setting way past the time we were going to bed but this weekend I was able to capture these pictures from our door step around 9:30- 10:00pm. The days are getting darker here and it is only the beginning!

I love this picture!

To think, this is the view I see from my door step. It is pretty amazing!

A few pieces of Gambell we will Treasure forever!

Over the past few weeks about every other night either at school or at our house we have native people coming to sell us carvings! We have seem some truly AMAZING things and were finally able to purchase a few pieces after payday!  

This is a whale bone mask carved into a face with polar bear fur around the head like a hood!

This is my Walrus he is pretty big even though you can't really tell. He is made out of Ivory.

This is our Beulah doll, he is a drummer. The drum he is holding is a very small version of the drums the Gambell men use during Yupik dance on Fridays. We were in our classrooms last week when this tiny old women walks in with this amazing doll. I was so shocked to actually see a Beulah doll and meet Beulah as well! I told her I would love to buy her doll, it would make a great Gambell Birthday present! I think she was very happy!

I found this bit of information about Beulah on the internet about how she makes the dolls and why they are so special.
   Beautiful Eskimo Dolls made from a variety of native materials by Beulah Oittilliah, her Granddauter Stephani and Maxine Ungott of Gambell, Alaska, Yup'ik Eskimo village of about 700 people on St. Lawrence Island; just south of the Bering Straits. The Yup'ik people have occupied the Bering Straits for thousands of years.
Beulah, Stephanie and Maxine are master Yup'ik doll makers. Beulah’s work is featured in a book titled “Ivory Carvers of St. Lawrence Island” by Dale Kessler. Each doll is unique and one of a kind. They have maintained their uniqueness because of the isolated nature of the island. The dolls are made from a wide variety of native materials. The face, hands are ivory from the tusk of a walrus. The eyes are inlaid baleen. The parkas are traditional walrus gut and gray-silver spotted fur seal. The trousers and mukluks are also spotted fur seal. They are generally mounted on an old walrus vertebrate or whale "ooziva". 

This is Ty's buy. His little Walrus family! The mama walrus has a baby under her side you can barely see behind the tusks.

It's Birthday Week!!

 It's Birthday Week!!! If you didn't know already my birthday is on Friday!! So today I feel it fitting to post about the beginning of Birthday Week!!! The only things that could have made this week better was if I got to spend it with my other half. But it has been what 5 years apart on our birthday so what's another year... there is always next year!! Happy Birthday Morgie!! I love you!! 

I should also mention Happy Birthday week to my wonderful Mother In-Law as well because her birthday is on Thursday!! Happy Birthday Week Edwina!! We Love you!!! 

Looking extra special opening up my box!

The box was busting open!

.. but it was just a pillow! Smelled like cardboard and home! : )

An already open bag of pancake mix!

The Box was SO Fun of the most wonderful things!

Sorry a bit blurry but it's butter!! Oh how I have missed BUTTER!!

Cornbread one of my favorites!! Just waiting for our SPAN meat order to come for some ribs and cornbread!

So happy for some Peanut Butter M&M's!! Ty will not get any of these because he deemed them non-essential when we were packing in Wisconsin to come up here! 

This is the box unloaded! SO much Yummy stuff!! 

Getting my Old Navy fix even in Gambell!! Thank you!!! 

As hard as this birthday will be not being near to my family this box came at a perfect time!! Thank you Mom and Jennifer and Morgan for filling it with most of my favorite things!! All I need now are some bittersweet chocolate chips!! -wink wink!!

THANK YOU FOR EVERYTHING!!!
Sending my love in the wind because with the gusts here I am sure you will feel them back home!!